Emergency Preparedness Thread

[Coach McGuirk]

here is a good deal on paracord.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S5ODO6?ie=UTF8&tag=slickguns-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creative ASIN=B000S5ODO6"]Amazon.com: Rothco 550lb. Type III Paracord: Sports & Outdoors@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21NwLeyGeDL.@@AMEPARAM@@21NwLeyGeDL[/ame]

Also for Phat a stormproof lighter is going to be your best bet and unfortunately they are going to run at least $25 bucks.

[FN Phat]

What do you recommend? 50 ft or 100 ft?

[Coach McGuirk]

What do you recommend? 50 ft or 100 ft?

100 ft is the better deal.

[Surfah]

Here's a decent deal for this 72-hr 2 person food kit. http://familystorehouse.net/index.ph...e_kit_72_hour/

Use the site www.groopdealz.com to get the discount. What typically costs $72 plus $10 shipping is $46 shipped.

[Surfah]

25% off everything today to celebrate Osama's death. Enter "suckit" at coupon code when checking out for the discount.

http://www.skdtac.com/

[Coach McGuirk]

LA Police gear is blowing out some surefire flashlights


http://www.lapolicegear.com/surefire-closeouts.html

[wuapinmon]

Here's a decent deal for this 72-hr 2 person food kit. http://familystorehouse.net/index.ph...e_kit_72_hour/

Use the site www.groopdealz.com to get the discount. What typically costs $72 plus $10 shipping is $46 shipped.

Thanks for posting this. I just got the deal twice. Hopefully it will lighten the load in our backpacks.

[Surfah]

LA Police gear is blowing out some surefire flashlights


http://www.lapolicegear.com/surefire-closeouts.html

Some nice prices on the Surefires. I don't know that they're worth the price though. In our kitchen cabinet we have a P6 and C2. They're nice and built to last, but I like my Streamlight Night Com just as well. Based on your earlier post I have been checking out the Fenix line. They look very nice too.

I am thinking of getting a bigger light though than some of these small pocket lights. I have seen some stuff out of China but I don't know about quality or reliability. Like this one:

http://www.chinavasion.com/product_i...ns-waterproof/

Here it is branded as Ultrafire:

http://www.lighthound.com/Ultrafire-...es_p_2800.html

[Surfah]

Anybody in the market for a cheap portable generator check this one out:

http://www.homedepot.com/Featured-Pr...c0s671&cj=true

It's $649 but add it to your cart for $250 off. Then add the coupon HDAPPLIANCE for another $20 off. Total of $379. Free shipping as well or you can pick it up at your local Home Depot. For price comparison BJ's Wholesale (Like Costco/Sam's Club) has it for $649 and Sears sells it for $779.

[Surfah]

I ordered this knife the other day for EDC. It's freaking sweet. A bit big but I really like it. I also already cut myself with it.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H0E8OI/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img"]Amazon.com: Kershaw Ken Onion Black Blur Folding Knife with Speed Safe: Sports & Outdoors@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411tEfffe0L.@@AMEPARAM@@411tEfffe0L[/ame]

[Surfah]

Last night our bishop called an emergency ward council because our little rumble yesterday here revealed that we have no ward emergency communications plan. And with Irene possibly threatening this weekend we put our heads together for a few hours to put something in place.

Anyway, we talked a bit about social media. The ward has a Facebook page. We were thinking of creating a Twitter account also. But we were also wondering about some sort of auto-dialer/sms text system like the local schools use whenever school is canceled. Most I am aware of are an add-on that can be pretty pricy and we're looking for free. Is anyone aware of anything like that?

Also, what kind of emergency plans do you have in place? In California we used a green flag system. For example, when the Northridge quake happened I (being a strapping lad like Nephi) went with our Bishopric to every member's home in our ward. If they didn't have their green flag in a visible location on the front of their home (typically front window) signalling they were okay then we knocked to make sure everything was alright. Surprisingly most of the ward responded well to this and we only had to knock on a few doors. Some of those had forgotten, but a few others had significant damage including one family that had to be evacuated as their home's foundation split right down the middle and one half of their home was a good foot higher than the other.

[Pheidippides]

Last night our bishop called an emergency ward council because our little rumble yesterday here revealed that we have no ward emergency communications plan. And with Irene possibly threatening this weekend we put our heads together for a few hours to put something in place.

Anyway, we talked a bit about social media. The ward has a Facebook page. We were thinking of creating a Twitter account also. But we were also wondering about some sort of auto-dialer/sms text system like the local schools use whenever school is canceled. Most I am aware of are an add-on that can be pretty pricy and we're looking for free. Is anyone aware of anything like that?

Also, what kind of emergency plans do you have in place? In California we used a green flag system. For example, when the Northridge quake happened I (being a strapping lad like Nephi) went with our Bishopric to every member's home in our ward. If they didn't have their green flag in a visible location on the front of their home (typically front window) signalling they were okay then we knocked to make sure everything was alright. Surprisingly most of the ward responded well to this and we only had to knock on a few doors. Some of those had forgotten, but a few others had significant damage including one family that had to be evacuated as their home's foundation split right down the middle and one half of their home was a good foot higher than the other.

I was the co-architect of our ward's emergency response plan. One of the first things we learned was that anything electronic is not a good idea for communication. Thankfully we learned this before Ike.

[Surfah]

I was the co-architect of our ward's emergency response plan. One of the first things we learned was that anything electronic is not a good idea for communication. Thankfully we learned this before Ike.

Right. And this is something we worked on last night. But with something like a hurricane we have time before electronics go out. Our concern with Irene is that it is supposed to be here Sunday morning. And we're looking at ways besides having HTs and VTs calling their families to notify them of church being cancelled. Another example, every winter we have church cancelled at least once or twice due to snow where electronic communication won't be hampered. An automated system in these situations would be very beneficial.

[wuapinmon]

Surfah,

The New Orleans Stake President sent me this in September 2008.

We have been using a system from a company called freedomvoice systems. There may be other better ones but it has worked pretty well for us (it doubles as voice mail for each ward/branch). It runs in my mind that in non emergency times it is around 40-50 dollars a month.



In emergencies a one minute call across the stake is around $75 (1500 households)…

Hope that helps.

[Pheidippides]

Right. And this is something we worked on last night. But with something like a hurricane we have time before electronics go out. Our concern with Irene is that it is supposed to be here Sunday morning. And we're looking at ways besides having HTs and VTs calling their families to notify them of church being cancelled. Another example, every winter we have church cancelled at least once or twice due to snow where electronic communication won't be hampered. An automated system in these situations would be very beneficial.

I think you need a two tiered approach - electronic and not. What we did is assign zone captains based entirely on geography (I am one). When we have advance warning of something, the zone captain contacts his/her zone (usually only five or six families) to make sure they are informed and see what their plans are (i.e., for a hurricane, will they evacuate). Then the captain reports back to the bishopric. Same story after a disaster except the contact may have to be made by foot (our ward is small enough geographically to allow this; yours may not) or by people with 4wd. This time it's about making sure people are okay and seeing what help they need (downed trees, etc.). Separately we have a database of who has what (trucks, generators, chainsaws, survival skills, etc.) and the bishop can allocate resources immediately.

This worked relatively well after Ike. Some hiccups, but generally it functioned the right way, and we had everybody cleaned up and bailed out within a couple of days. After that we expanded our service to people outside of the ward, and we helped out neighbors of ward members at the same time we helped out members.